Starting Over

[Natural]

karatekid your my favourite sensei in the forums.

[karatekid1975]

Thank you I do try

[Dijita]

My boyfriend who was in Kyokushin for a few years became a blue belt. He then had to leave the martial arts in order to do other things in life. Fast forward to today, which is about 4 years later, he now gets back into Kyokushin again and is required to start all over because he was out of the classroom for over a year. He was fine with this at first, but now he gets frustrated every once and awhile. The biggest problem is that he has quickly rememebered everything up to blue belt but he is fored to practice all the white belt katas and techniques. It is a hard mental barrier for him to get over. I try to tell him to see the positive and thats that he now has the oppurtunity to really perfect what he already knows. Though I can understand his frustration.

[karatekid1975]

You gave him good advice. When I switched schools, there was only a month gab that I didn't train.

 

I can't really say what is right or wrong about a 4 year gap. But I agree with you that he should go with it (starting over). It will only make him a better blue belt than he was the first time around

[wado_lee]

can i tell you my little story i started training at an early age reached junior black belt soon after stopped training for a while (girls and footy LOL) started back as a senior at another club (same style) as white belt achieved 1st dan after 7yrs--------------- i have been doing jujitsu for around 1yr and wear a white belt my point being the colour of the belt loses importance the more your involved ------ rank is a western need for motivation and not important (my thoughts anyway)

[ramymensa]

I tend not to rush into ranks and it's kinda impossible since my sensei is very hard headed for this, we can dream of becoming shodans after 6-7 years of training. Not because he is bad or we suck, but because his expectations are very high (as related to what we can do).

 

So ranks are or shouldn't be that important. Still .. the rank means more than we would want. In our dojo certain techniques are "reserved" for higher ranks. When doing kihon students get more techniques in the combination as their ranks is higher. White belts do 1 or 2 techniques per combination and the others 3-4 or even 5 and more. The thing is many would like to do the "cool" stuff, but are not alowed still. I have coleagues that trained for as long or even longer than I had and they are low ranks or not ranked. Sensei won't push them to grade and they say they are not interested in the belts. Sounds OK. BUT let me confess no one in that situation would get a high rank, even though they've been training so much they could become brownies. They lack all the qualities needed in order to pass the exam (and God knows they're killing us with them. Very intense exams .. pushing you to the limit for every rank). I've noticed their technique is not OK and I have to show a lot of things and correct them, though we're equal in tenure or they were in the dojo when I wasn't even thinking of it.

 

It's not a rule of thumb but for some this lack of interest in rank is also a lack in interest in training (sometimes at an unconscious level). There's nothing more motivating than the aproach of a belt exam (a serious one as it is in our dojo). I've been training like nuts just to survive them and at this time my "superior" minded coleagues just went through the motions in a cruising speed. They were relexed. I was horrified and pushed to the limit. Contests do the same. It's not importat the medal and stuff (we all know the judges can be biased sometimes). But getting there is the idea. We are not alowed to compete until sensei thinks we are OK. I refused to compete and was kinda happy when he pushed me. Not to mention I trained twice as hard as the others in my class. And some coleagues trained relaxed, as I do when trying to recover from a "training spree".

 

The times I prepared for rank tests and competitions helped my pitch higher as they did for many others. Those who stayed uninterested in the rank are now being taught by us, they are aware we are better and deserve the place in the hierarchy. Don't rush into the belts, but don't let them go by. You have deserved to test, do it and go forward .. to new techniques and a place well deserved.

 

I'm not vain, still I feel darn well when asked to help teaching and demonstrating and being put in the front line. I've worked hard for my rank and the respect of my peers. Respect is earned by hard work and in my dojo hard work means you get to wear a darker belt.

[longarm25]

Very nice article

[cheeks]

i dont understand the point you are trying to make.

you are saying that because you are a Black belt in ine style, that you should be automatically black belt in another?

i disagree, i would always start from the begining white belt. becuase it is only at the begining do you learn the basics and without the basics how can you hope to do the advanced stuff......

[fallen_milkman]

Good article! However, I don't see a big deal in keeping your rank the second time around if the instructor was ok with it. Just because you need to catch up doesn't mean you need to rush to catch up. If the belt color is less important to you than techniques, then switching back to green should not have a made a difference either. Just take your time, and you'll get the same out of your training. No offense meant, just my side of the coin.

[karatekid1975]

Non taken I do see your point.

But I am taking my time and I AM a technique geek, by the way LOL.